The Narrative Within

Bebina’s Moominvalley Summer

Posted on July 19, 2024 by Art for Housewives

for Connie who, one morning drinking coffee in front of the sea, told me about the Moomins

Your childhood follows you wherever you go.

That morning Bebina Bunny sat on her terrace writing in her diary. A lot was going on in her life and she wanted to remember all of it. She was fully immersed in her writing when a breeze packed with smells hit her face. Bebina stopped writing and started sniffing.

The air was full of memories. Because a smell can transport you to a different place and time. And that day the smells transported Bebina back to Moominvalley.

Two elementary school teachers, Luz and Laura, had been penpals since they were young girls. Being pen pals had been a rewarding experience for them both. First of all, by writing letters to one another, over the years they’d polished their communication skills. These letters had been full of so many curiosities that they traded between themselves. And most importantly, Luz and Laura had built a loving and solid friendship. So why not encourage their students to have pen pals? And that’s how Bebina and Moomintroll had become pen pals, too.

For many years now, Bebina and Moomintroll had been exchanging letters. Charming and childlike, they enjoyed sending one another handwritten notes along with little souvenirs such as pressed flowers, used postage stamps, ticket stubs from movies, and clippings from manga magazines.

Moomintroll lived with his parents, Moominmamma and Moominpapa, in Moominvalley. Now that school was out for summer, Moomintroll thought it would be wonderful if Bebina could come to Moominvalley to visit him and his family. Bebina, who’d never been to Finland before, thought it a great idea mainly because she wanted to see reindeers. Moomintroll told Bebina she could even bring her cat, Puffy, so Puffy wouldn’t have to be alone. With joy and enthusiasm, Bebina and Puffy packed their knapsacks and headed north.

That year it was very hot in Moominvalley. The water in the river had started to dry up. So Moomintroll suggested they all go for a swim before all the water evaporated. There was Bebina and Puffy, of course, but there was also Little My, Snorkmaiden, and Snufkin. They were happily splashing around in the water when Little My saw a wooden crate floating around. She called the others to come and help her take it to shore where they could see what was inside.

The crate was full of tropical fruit seeds. Although doubtful that anything tropical could grow in their valley, the group excitedly planted the seeds anyway. That night there was a huge tropical storm, and it rained all night. But the next morning, they woke up and found themselves in the middle of a lush forest full of tropical fruits. There were mangos and bananas and limes and papaya growing everywhere.

It was wonderful to be surrounded by so much good fruit. And everyone joyfully ate as much of it as possible. That is, until they found out about the carnivores. Thanks to the seeds, there were bananas, limes, mango, and papaya but there was now an army of man-eating plants ready to devour them, too.

To calm the hungry plants, Snufkin played his harmonica. The plants, mesmerized by the vibes, began to sway back and forth back and forth. Like a Pied Pipper, Snufkin played as the plants followed him around. Snufkin led them to the basement where, once the plants were all inside, Snufkin quickly left closing the door behind him. Left in the dark, the poor plants died.

Moomintroll walked through the tropical forest. There were vines hanging everywhere just waiting to give someone a ride. Seduced, Moomintroll felt the need to swing. Feeling very savage, he changed into an eco-tiger print salopettes. Bebina also changed as she wanted to swing, too. Once she started swinging, she felt just like Jane. Whereas Moomintroll complained to Stinky that it was difficult pretending to be Tarzan when there were no wild animals around. Oh, how lovely it would be to be surrounded by monkeys and chimps, he said. Stinky told him not to worry because he could get some animals to jazz up the jungle. Moomintroll was so excited about the idea of swinging with a Cheetah that he didn’t bother to ask where the animals would come from.

That night Stinky broke into the local zoo and opened all the cages. The animals were elated to get out and immediately started roaming around. But they had nowhere to go. And, having lived in cages for so long, they’d forgotten how to naturally be themselves.

For some reason, the animals thought they were supposed to behave like savages. That’s why the tigers, for example, started chasing the Moomins hoping to eat them. But before Mr. Tiger could even get his jaws opened, Moominpappa pushed him into the river. The tiger couldn’t swim. The Moomins didn’t want to harm anyone, they just didn’t want to be harmed themselves. So Moominpappa dived into the water and saved the tiger from drowning. Then Moominpappa took his family home.

Mr. and Mrs. Tiger looked at one another and sighed. Not having been able to freely be themselves for so long, they no longer knew who they were or how they were supposed to act. “I’m just not the tiger I used to be,” said Mr. Tiger.

Once back at the Moominhouse, Bebina reflected on the events of the day. Swaying in her hammock, she lulled her thoughts into place. It seemed to her more and more that people really had no clue as to who they really were. It was, as if from the catalogue of “Who I Wanna Be”, people made choices without really understanding who they were. More than being themselves, thought Bebina, people preferred inventing themselves.

Often, our life evolves but our dreams do not. We insist on keeping obsolete and unrealistic dreams then become frustrated when we can’t actualize them.

And what about those animals living in cages. Whose idea was it that these magnificent creatures should be deprived of a normal life just so some dude could go point his finger at them and say “Look at those beasts!” But who are the real beasts?

The real beasts are those who deprive others of their freedom.

For years the animals had been locked in cages. They’d been deprived of being their real selves. But now, once freed, they no longer knew who their “real” self was. They no longer knew what to do.

Once freed, the animals could never go back to who they once were. Time and their condition of possibility had eternally transformed them. And the realization of this was overwhelming. Seeing their bewilderment, Moominmamma instinctively knew what to do. She gave them all a cup of tea and made them feel as if they belonged. As if they were part of the family.

A sense of belonging is important even for animals. And once the wild animals freed from the zoo were made to feel as if they belonged, they stopped being aggressive. Talk at the table let them better understand one another. By simply sitting down together and talking, they realized that they had more things in common than not.

This post is an ekphrastic celebration of Tove Jansson (1914-2001) and the Moomins she created. Tove, a Swedish speaking Finnish writer and artist, began drawing the Moomins as early as 1935 although the first Moomin book would not be published until 10 years later.

Moomin children’s books brought Tove fame and fortune. But it also brought much stress. Her originally intention had been to be a painter, not a cartoonist. But the Moomins had given her the possibility of reliving certain sensations she’d so enjoyed during her childhood. The Moomins also provided her with economic security. So Tove continued to write Moomin books until the death of her mom. And after her mom’s death, Tove had the Moomin sails into the sunset never to return again.

-30-

Related: Watch These Animals Being Freed For The First Time video +

Moominvalley is a British Finnish animated family drama television series. An adaptation of the Moomin books and comics by writer-illustrator Tove Jansson and her brother Lars Jansson, it is created using new techniques in 3D CGI.

This post was inspired by the Moominvalley episode The Wooden Crate & Buried in a Jungle on Moomin Official

Posted in Art Narratives, Bebina Bunny | Tagged animals, Bebina Bunny, carnivores, childhood, Condition of possibility, Ekphrastic Writing, freedom, Little My, Moomin, Moominvalley, penpals, Pied Piper, Snufkin, Tove Jansson | Leave a comment

Solitude is Frugal

Posted on June 28, 2024 by Art for Housewives

Tenby is a quiet seaside town in Wales, land of bards. It was here that, as a child, the artist Gwen John (1876-1939) combed the beaches looking for seashells to paint.

Gwen’s mother died when Gwen was only eight. The absence of a parent always has consequences on a child. Unfortunately, sometimes those consequences only seem to grow.

Both Gwen and her younger brother, Augustus, wanted to become artists. So when Gwen was 19, the siblings travelled together to London to attend the Slade School of Art, the only art school that admitted women. Once there, Gwen, already shy by nature, became better known as her brother’s sister than as an artist in her own right.

Augustus was a good draftsman, charming, and a major womanizer. Within a few years, he became a well-known society painter. Gwen and one of her brother’s friends, Ambrose McEvoy, began an intimate relationship. Gwen was head over heels whereas Ambrose was just a heel. With no warning, he dumped Gwen and then married an older unattractive woman. Gwen was crushed.

In 1903 Gwen and a friend decided to walk to Rome. They sailed from Liverpool to Bordeaux where they began walking. They walked carrying their art equipment, slept in fields, and tried exchanging sketches for food. However, once they had arrived in Toulouse, the thrill of On the Road was way gone and they headed towards Paris. It was 1904 and Gwen had begun modeling to maintain herself. Her brother Augustus suggested that she seek employment as a model for Rodin, the most well-known artist at the time. Rodin preferred British and American models. He quite liked Gwen’s physical presence and decided to use her as a model for his monument to Whistler (with whom Gwen had studied for a short time). But the statue was never finished.

Despite the 35 year age difference, Gwen and Rodin became lovers. Rodin was a serial seducer with years of experience. Gwen was inexperienced and needy. She began writing him obsessively sending him up to three letters a day for the next ten years. Gwen was in love but Rodin was not. Eventually he tried keeping her at a distance.

Gwen had now been dumped by the only two men she had ever loved. Like Dora Maar after Picasso, Gwen sought solace in Catholicism. So Rodin was replaced by God and Gwen’s only desire was to become “God’s little artist.”

Gwen practiced extreme frugality. Frugality, a form of restraint, is necessary when you don’t have much money to survive on. But frugality is often considered a form of spiritual discipline. Catholics believe in forms of self-denial such as fasting, penances, and giving your money to the church instead of using it for some personal pleasure. Deprivation is, for many, a religious experience.

The external world had been too aggressive for her. It was best, she thought, to focus even more on her interior self. So for the rest of her life she lived in Meudon alone with her cats (Camille Claudel style). Gwen John died of starvation on a street in Dieppe in 1939.

There is much mythology about Gwen’s reclusiveness. Although she never completely retired from life, solitude was the essence of her being. She even saw solitude as a form of self-preservation. In 1912 Gwen began a notebook entitled “Rules to keep the world away”.

“I don’t pretend to know anybody well. People are like shadows to me and I am like a shadow” she wrote.

The desire for solitude radically affected her art. She preferred painting women all alone. Some of her models commented that Gwen often pulled their hair back maybe to look a bit more like Gwen herself.

Gwen John, Self-Portrait (1902) Source

Gwen John, The Student (c. 1903) SOURCE

Gwen John, The Artist in her Room (c. 1907) SOURCE

Gwen John, Self-Portrait with Letter (1907) SOURCE

There are currently more than one thoushand letters by Gwen to Rodin in the archives of the Rodin Museum in Paris.

Gwen John, Young Woman Holding a Black Cat (c. 1920) SOURCE

Gwen was a cat lover .

Camille Claudel and Touch +

Gwen John + THE PORTRAITURE OF GWEN JOHN + Gwen John: student and master + A Muse For Rodin, The Welsh Painter Gwen John + Did Auguste Rodin Steal From Camille Claudel? +

Gwen John | Motifs

Bibliography:

Taubman, Mary. Gwen John. James Price Publishing. London. 1985. (available of archive HERE)

Chitty, Susan, Lady. Gwen John, 1876-1939. F. Watts. NYC. 1987. (available on archive HERE)

Posted in Art Narratives, Conditions of Possibility, Paris | Tagged Camille Claudel, Catholicism, frugality, Gwen John, Rodin, solitude | 1 Comment

St. Martin’s Cloak

Posted on June 8, 2024 by Art for Housewives

One extremely cold winter’s day in the year 335, Marin was doing his duty as a young soldier in the Roman army when he saw a beggar freezing from the cold. Without hesitation, Martin took his sword and with a big SWHISH sliced his cloak in half. He kept one half for himself and gave the other half to the beggar. Instead of using the sword to destroy a life, Martin had used it to save a life.

That night Jesus came to Martin wearing the cloak and said: “What you did for that poor man, you did for me as well.” And thanks to his generosity to someone less fortunate than himself, Martin became a saint.

St. Martin’s cloak became a popular theme in religious art.

After the conversion of Emperor Constantine, Romans were more or less forced to convert to Christianity, too.

Martin, born in what is now Hungary, was forced to join the calvary at the age of 15 and served for nearly two years after his baptism.

Related: St. Martin, Bishop of Tours (c.315-379) + + Constantine the Great and Christianity

Posted in Art Narratives, Conditions of Possibility, Daily Aesthetics | Tagged Emperor Constantine, St. Martin's Cloak | 3 Comments

Ancient Moms

Posted on June 7, 2024 by Art for Housewives

for Dorit, χρόνια πολλά

The Roman Empire, addicted to expansion and wealth, wanted Britain’s tin and the land that went with it. In 54 BC, Julius Caesar invaded Britain. The locals were not prepared for such an overwhelming military force. Britain at the time was full of small kingdoms. To avoid conflict and loss, many leaders became “client kings”. That is, in exchange for their loyalty to Rome, the kings would be permitted to maintain some degree of sovereignty. Accommodating client kings generally became wealthy making this compromise all the easier to accept. This form of governing went on for almost 100 years. But that all changed in 60 AD.

Claudius became Roman emperor in 41 AD. He was physically awkward as he limped and had difficulties hearing. Romans liked their men to be macho so the wimpy Claudius was snubbed by his contemporaries. That is, until Caligula was assassinated. Claudius, the only adult male remaining in the family, became Emperor. Despite being an efficient administrator, Claudius had enemies including his wife (and niece), Agrippina the Younger, who was also the sister of Caligula and the mother of Nero.

After their marriage, Claudius adopted Nero as his son. Big mistake. Once Agrippina moved into the palace, she took over. Her deleterious relationship with power convinced her to feed her husband poisonous mushrooms so her son, Nero, could become emperor.

In 54 AD at the age of 16, Nero became Emperor of the Roman Empire. Although he had little interest in ruling the empire, he had much interest in spending the Empire’s money.

Momma Agrippina was just as greedy as her son. And just as sleezy. She had a libido out of whack having sexual relationships with her uncle, her brother, and her son. Agrippina used sex as a means of maintaining control. But Nero grew tired of his mom’s interference so he had her killed.

Nero and Agrippina

In 60 AD, Prasutagus, king of the Celtic tribe, Iceni, died. He’d been a client king and, hoping to avoid conflict for his people, he declared that his daughters, along with Nero, would rule the Iceni. But Nero, a greedy spendthrift, decided he wanted all of Prasutagus’ wealth and property. He did not honor the terms of Prasutagus’ will and, instead, Nero sent Roman soldiers to take charge of Prasutagus’ patrimony. And as they pillage and plundered, the Romans also stripped and flogged Boudica, wife of Prasutagus and Queen of the Iceni before raping her daughters.

Now Boudica was a mom. Not a mom like Agrippina but a normal mom who was bound to protecting and defending her children. The violence and humilation her daughters had been subjected to gave her a super power she vowed to use to destroy the Romans and their allies. After uniting the other Celtic tribes to make a passionate speech about the need to reappropriate themselves of their own territory and their own culture, Boudica declared war on the Romans.

Fueled by a mother’s rage, Boudica led her troops to victory, successfully razing to the ground three major Roman controlled towns (including modern-day London). Not only had the Romans been humiliated, they’d been humiliated by a woman. Nero foamed at the mouth while ordering the Roman governor of Britain, Suetonius Paulinus, to obliterate Boudica and her people.

The Romans were brutal and destroyed everything they could. Boudica, seeing her defeat, reacted like Cleopatra. She and her daughters drank a poisoned cocktail because they knew it was better to be dead than to be a prisoner of the Roman army.

In The Gallic Wars, Caesar wrote that the Druids concerned themselves with all things sacred as well as in settling disputes decreeing both rewards and punishments. There were various groups of Druids each group having its own leader.

All Druids were Celts but not all Celts were Druids.

Most of what is known about the Druids comes from the Romans. The Romans were keen on writing the history for themselves and others. Because it was also a form of propaganda. The Druids were literate, but it was against their religion to write down the knowledge meant only for priests and sacred scholars. The Druid need for secrecy is reminiscent of the Eleusinian mysteries.

There were three categories of Druids: Druids the philosophers, Ovates the healers/seerers, and Bards the singers/storytellers.

Many of the Bards lived in Wales. So is it any wonder that the Welsh have an excellent choir tradition? Or any wonder that Tom Jones is from Wales?

-30-

Related: The Celtic Origins of Mistletoe + Druids in History Maria Palmer + Women in Druidry + Were There Female Druids? + Regarding Female Druids + Druidism and Female + Ancient druids of Wales + Twilight of the Druids, Madness of Emperors + The mysterious history of druids, ancient ‘mediators between humans and the gods’ + the Bards of Wales + Who was Nero? British Museum +

Posted in Art Narratives | Tagged Agrippina, Boudica, Britain, Caligula, Celts, Druids, Julius Caesar, Nero, Prasutagus, Roman Empire, Romans, Rome, Suetonius Paulinus | 6 Comments

Ekphrastic Tourists

Posted on June 4, 2024 by Art for Housewives

“The relation between what we see and what we know is never settled.” John Berger

Simply looking at a great work of art is not always enough. We often feel the primordial need to possess it in some way. And the cheapest way of doing so is by being photographed with it.

In Pisa, it’s almost mandatory to have a photo taken of yourself in such a way as to appear as if you are holding up the tower. Who doesn’t want to be a hero?

They felt like screaming so they did. Apparently, it is a big thing to take a photo of the self in front of Munch’s The Scream screaming (as can be seen HERE).